Anaheim 2 Supercross | Here’s What Happened…from the Notepad

Anaheim 2 Supercross | Here’s What Happened…from the Notepad

By Billy Rainford

Photos by Feld Entertainment

Here’s what happened at Round 3 of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross at A2 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California

Coming into Round 3 of the 2026 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Series, #1W Haiden Deegan held a 1-point lead in 250 West over his Yamaha Star Racing teammate #61 Max Anstie. After having words and then a meeting during the week, the 2 were going to let bygones be bygones and get on with the business of winning races. Or were they?

The other main combatant for Deegan is Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s #47 Levi Kitchen. Kitchen has been his own worst enemy so far this season and things didn’t change in his favour this week.

He and Deegan went back and forth in Q2 for top spot with Deegan getting the final “high mark” to go to the top late in the session. Honda HRC rider #29 Chance Hymas looked like he was about to right his ship with a solid 6th overall in qualifying (after leading Q1) while all eyes were on the improvements made by Club MX Yamaha’s #60 Hunter Yoder who was showing that Chad Reed‘s influence is working with a very impressive 5th overall.

Anstie would end up 3rd with Rockstar Husqvarna’s #34 Ryder Difrancesco 4th and we were set for some action in the 250 Main.

Before we got there, Kitchen was closing on Difrancesco for the lead in Heat 1 when both he and leader Difrancesco came up very short on the triple before the mechanics area. Ryder rode out of his cased jump while Levi did a spectacular full front flip that miraculously caused him little-to-no physical damage. He was even able to remount and cross the line in 8th to move directly to the Main.

Hymas won followed by Difrancesco and Club MX Yamaha’s #19 Max Vohland who is also showing improved speed in 2026.

#316 Ty Freehill fell while trying an inside move to take the final transfer spot and landed hard on his left wrist. He immediately waved for the medics and supported what looked to be a damaged left wrist.

Anstie grabbed the holeshot in Heat 2 and was looking good out front while Deegan was in 2nd ahead of his other teammate #23 Michael Mosiman and Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s #142 Cameron McAdoo.

Angel Stadium sat and waited for the inevitable catch and pass from Deegan to see if there might not be another inside move like the previous week in San Diego that knocked Anstie down.

It didn’t happen and with about 3:00 left to go, Deegan made a clean pass to take the lead and check out on the field. Anstie was 2nd and Mosiman 3rd.

In 450 Heat 1, Red Bull KTM’s #26 Jorge Prado grabbed the holeshot ahead of Honda HRC’s #96 Hunter Lawrence, Red Bull KTM’s #7 Aaron Plessinger, Quad Lock Honda’s #28 Christian Craig, and ISRT Kawasaki’s #719 Vince Friese. Suzuki’s #94 Ken Roczen was in 6th early.

Plessinger would crash in spectacular fashion when he felt the front end of his KTM drop and decided to eject, fortunately, landing on the downside of the landing. He was able to get up and get his bent bike across the line in 8th to move directly to the Main.

Prado held off Lawrence for the win while Roczen made his way up to 3rd at the flag, just under 10 seconds back.

450 Heat 2 had 4 champions in it. Rockstar Husqvarna’s #24 RJ Hampshire is credited with the official holeshot, but it was Yamaha Star Racing’s defending SX Champion #1 Cooper Webb who led early with Monster Kawasaki’s #4 Chase Sexton in tow. The top qualifier, and only rider to dip under the 1:00 mark, Sexton made a pass right away to take the lead with Red Bull KTM’s #3 Eli Tomac in 4th behind Hampshire.

Sexton would hit the ground and drop back to around 8th place and have to make passes to get himself up to 4th by the end of the race.

Twisted Tea Suzuki rider #21 Jason Anderson was showing the speed that took him to a championship and moved his way up to 3rd behind a nice battle between Tomac and Webb who would finish in that order. Surprisingly, Anderson hasn’t won a SX since the 2022 season.

250 Main

When the gate dropped for the 250 Main, it was the piano playing Mosiman out front ahead of Vohland, McAdoo, Deegan, Heartbeat Hot Sauce Yamaha’s #237 Robbie Wageman, Difrancesco, and Bar X Yamaha’s #40 Parker Ross. Anstie was behind Yoder in 9th.

Hymas was down in the first turn after AEO KTM rider #71 Carson Mumford high-sided into him. He would end up pulling out of the race.

Bad news again for Kitchen, too, as he would crash in the next section ending his night.

At the halfway point, Mosiman led Deegan and the two riders gapped a nice battle between McAdoo, Vohland and Difrancesco by 10 seconds with Ryder getting past Max for 4th.

With 3:00 left to go, Deegan set up a nice inside move on Mosiman and took the lead.

At the same time, McAdoo had Difrancesco all over him and the 2 would continue their fight for 3rd.

Anstie would finally get by Yoder with just 40 seconds left on the clock to take 6th place.

At the flag, it was Deegan 8 1/2 seconds ahead of Mosiman who was 5 1/2 seconds ahead o Difrancesco and McAdoo who had managed to put 13 seconds on Vohland in 5th with Anstie closing in.

450 Main

In the 450 Main, the holeshot went to Anderson who looked comfortable running the pace. Behind him it was Sexton, Lawrence, Rockstar Husqvarna’s #27 Malcolm Stewart, who is still nursing that sore shoulder, Tomac, Plessinger, and Webb.

Lawrence got by Sexton on lap 2 to take over 2nd place while Roczen was mired at the back of the pack early.

3:00 in and Sexton was able to get back around Lawrence to take 2nd behind Anderson still out front.

At around the 15:00 mark, Sexton made the pass on Anderson to take the lead and never looked back.

At the half, it was Sexton, Anderson, Tomac, Lawrence, and Webb. They had a 10:00 gap back to a raging battle between 6 riders, Stewart, Hampshire, Quad Lock Honda’s #17 Joey Savatgy, Prado, Plessinger, and Yamaha Star Racing’s #32 Justin Cooper.

Lawrence would get back by Tomac who then pushed Anderson out of the way to take 3rd.

With about 6:00 left to go, Plessinger was forced out of the race.

With just 5:00 left on the clock, Sexton was out front by 2.5 seconds ahead of Lawrence and a nice fight between Tomac and Webb for 3rd. Anderson was 5 seconds behind them and about 10 ahead of Savatgy and Stewart who went back and forth a couple times. Prado was next ahead of Hampshire and Roczen, and Cooper.

Webb would fall with just 1:00 to go and drop back. He would later say it may have been the “nail in the coffin” for his championship defence hopes.

At the flag, Sexton took the win just 3 seconds ahead of Lawrence. Tomac would take 3rd ahead of Anderson, Webb, Savatgy, Prado, Roczen, Hampshire, and Cooper rounding out the top 10.

2026 SX 450 Championship

	#	BIKE	RIDER	POINTS	POINT ADJUSTMENTS	1: Anaheim 1	2: San Diego	3: Anaheim 2
1	3	KTM	Eli Tomac	70	0	25 1st	25 1st	20 3rd
2	96	HON	Hunter Lawrence	62	0	18 4th	22 2nd	22 2nd
3	4	KAW	Chase Sexton	57	0	14 8th	18 4th	25 1st
4	94	SUZ	Ken Roczen	56	0	22 2nd	20 3rd	14 8th
5	21	SUZ	Jason Anderson	46	0	17 5th	11 11th	18 4th
6	1	YAM	Cooper Webb	46	0	15 7th	14 8th	17 5th
7	32	YAM	Justin Cooper	44	0	16 6th	16 6th	12 10th
8	17	HON	Joey Savatgy	42	0	9 13th	17 5th	16 6th
9	26	KTM	Jorge Prado	41	-3	17 3rd	9 13th	15 7th
10	14	DUC	Dylan Ferrandis	37	0	13 9th	13 9th	11 11th
11	7	KTM	Aaron Plessinger	27	0	12 10th	15 7th	0 22nd
12	24	HQV	R.J. Hampshire	27	0	4 18th	10 12th	13 9th
13	28	HON	Christian Craig	27	0	11 11th	7 15th	9 13th
14	46	KTM	Justin Hill	23	0	8 14th	8 14th	7 15th
15	27	HQV	Malcolm Stewart	22	0	0 22nd	12 10th	10 12th
16	45	SUZ	Colt Nichols	22	0	10 12th	6 16th	6 16th
17	12	HON	Shane McElrath	13	0	5 17th	4 18th	4 18th
18	33	TRI	Austin Forkner	12	0	7 15th	0 39th	5 17th
19	36	KAW	Garrett Marchbanks	8	0	0 28th		8 14th
20	52	BET	Mitchell Oldenburg	6	0	6 16th	0 41st

The series now moves to Houston for Round 4.

Accompanying the action of the 450SMX and 250SMX classes was the first race of SMX Next – Supercross, featuring the most talented and high-profile A and B class prospects in amateur motocross. The race featured a hand-selected field of 22 racers and was dominated by young Australian Kayden Minear, who went wire-to-wire in his first-ever Supercross race. The 18-year-old was never challenged throughout the 8 Minute + 1 Lap race and spearheaded an impressive sweep of the podium by Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing. Minear took the checkered flag 1.7 seconds ahead of 16-year-old Caden Dudney, who was followed by 18-year-old Landen Gordon. Monster Energy Kawasaki Team Green’s Vincent Wey, the 16-year-old son of former SMX star Nick Wey, was in podium contention throughout the race, but ultimately settled for fourth.